Zurbuchen added that the missions were getting humans closer to understanding whether they were "indeed alone or not".

"The abundance of H2, along with previously observed carbonate species, suggests a state of chemical disequilibria in the Enceladus ocean that represents a chemical energy source capable of supporting life", Jeffrey Seewald, of the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in MA, wrote in an accompanying "Perspectives" piece in the same issue of Science. From additional Cassini observations, scientists concluded that not only is there a pool of water near the south pole of Enceladus to generate the plumes, but a global ocean that lies beneath the moon's ice.

In fact, Enceladus may have methane breathing alien life already there.

The latest findings suggest that Enceladus - a small, icy moon a billion miles farther from the sun than Earth - has almost all of these ingredients for habitability.

While some ingredients for life were found on Enceladus, the scientists made clear that the discovery didn't confirm life on the planet, but merely confirmed favorable conditions.

"We're moving towards Enceladus's ocean being habitable, but we're not making any claims at this point about it being inhabited", lead author Hunter Waite, with the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, said in an interview.

In addition, Hubble Space Telescope researchers reported in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that they've spotted the same vapor jets erupting from Jupiter's large, icy moon Europa, which also has a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust. However, the scientists believe that phosphorus and sulphur might be existing on the moon.

Like Enceladus, Europa harbors a subsurface saltwater ocean and could contain organic molecules.

"Some of the most primitive metabolic pathways utilized by microbes in these environments involve the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) with H2 to form methane (CH4) by a process known as methanogenesis", Jeffrey Seewald wrote in an accompanying piece in the same Science magazine. An ecosystem like this is powered by chemical reaction rather than by reaction to sunlight - important because Saturn is so far from the sun and the ocean water of Enceladus is protected by a thick shell of surface ice.

NASA used a similar end-of-mission strategy for the Galileo spacecraft that explored Jupiter and its moons in the 1990s.

"That's just going to be a tremendous opportunity to test our theories and see if there's life there", said James L. Green, director of planetary science at NASA.

NASA is now planning to send the Europa Clipper mission, which will orbit around Jupiter and fly at least 40 times near Europa.

Two long running Nasa missions, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Cassini mission to Saturn, are providing the evidence necessary for further scientific investigations into extraterrestrial life.

NASA doesn't usually hold news conferences for minor discoveries or observations, so when the agency announced that it would be holding a press conference this week to talk about oceans on other planets, we knew it had to be something particularly interesting.

Second case of measles confirmed in MI in 2017Apr 16, 2017
The vaccination, or documentation of immunity to measles, is recommended for all persons travelling internationally, Wells said. Successfully controlling it and preventing outbreaks requires high levels of immunity in all communities, officials noted.

Trump and taxes: Back to drawing board, seeks GOP consensusApr 14, 2017
Trump had three major economic priorities that he wanted to push through Congress this year, and all are off to rocky starts. Trump said he believed that withholding the payments for insurers would bring Democrats to the table on negotiations.

No positive shift yet on Russia-US tiesApr 14, 2017
Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council: "We want to work with Russian Federation to advance a political process in Syria". He also rejected American claims of incontrovertible evidence that Assad ordered the chemical attack.

Canucks fire head coach DesjardinsApr 12, 2017
The Oilers management did it, like, five times, and frankly nothing took until the suits were changed out in Edmonton. Willie Desjardins was sacked by Vancouver on Monday after missing the postseason for the second consecutive season.

House Intelligence Committee Chair Steps AsideApr 09, 2017
Pelosi called on Trump to "declassify the basis" of his comment and said , "It's time for him to be president, to be the manager". There was concern that the presser showed Nunes was too entangled with Trump to properly investigate the Trump campaign.

South Africa's new finance minister vows 'radical' changeApr 08, 2017
But he says this is to ensure such decisions can be owned, justified and defended by the party's leadership collective. Gordhan said he would not fight his firing but invoked South Africa's long history of mass mobilization.